WSO's Best Real Estate Books

People ask about the best real estate books to read on this forum almost daily and we're happy to toss Linneman and Bowman their way, as well as all of the terrific ULI books, but @Whats the Comp" today asked specifically about non-textbook reads and it got me thinking that we should build a list of our favorites. Here are mine, in no particular order:

It's a very easy read, and doesn't require prior real estate knowledge. It's very high level, and shares what's proven to be a very effective approach to small-time commercial real estate investing. I'd recommend for sure.

Poorvu's book (BOE method) is how I invest. I check it with a model but it's pretty amazing after a while you'll pretty much know what the IRR will be without doing shit in excel. It is also the reason for my username. Highly recommended.

Just breezed through it this past week. Really is an excellent book. My favorite aspect was all of the detailed example questions he throws out when discussing the deals - really opens up your mind to the qualitative aspects that are truly important to each deal. No matter how good the numbers look, if you don't ask the right questions, you will end up making poor investments.

Jane Jacobs - Death and Life of Great American Cities- even if you don't agree with her conclusions, her first principles/bottom up approach to urban planning is useful for evaluating the physical real estate- the intro has a very quick but useful history of city planning (with more reading suggestions)

I've heard "Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City" by Neal Bascomb and "Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West" by William Cronan are great reads, but have yet to read either. Reviews look great for both - I'll probably start with the latter as it got rave reviews.

The book that opened my eyes to the possibilities of real estate and got my feet wet was "Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur" by JamesA Randall. He tells you about the deals he's done in detail and gives you the numbers. Out of my 20+ RE books in my library, this is #1.

Another great book so far is High Rise by Jerry Adler about Ian Bruce Eichner and his NY office project that lost $200M. I'm only a third of the way through it but anyone that has ever asked 'what's the day-to-day like for a real estate developer?,' especially for high-rise urban infill, should read this book. It flows like a novel but the developer gave fairly unprecedented access and detail into the issues that came up and how they were resolved.

How readable is the Linneman book? I loved The Real Estate Game and Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur since they read like a series of stories / case studies. I'd like to read something more technical to brush up on some more advanced financial analysis but would prefer to avoid a dry textbook (if its even possible for a more technical book to not be dry).

Only somewhat related - I really enjoyed "The Art of the Deal" anecdotes of the deals trump has been involved with were really cool. Finding a signed copy in a house i bought and was tearing down for redevelopment may have added to my enjoyment.

Does anyone have any good suggestions related specifically to CRE debt? Would like to read any stories about successes in the RE debt fund space.

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